If You Could Go Back
by ShamelessDilettante
Summary: For the Vongola, time travel is a part and parcel of life, though usually only five minutes at a time. So when the Guardians and their boss are bought twenty years back and find themselves stuck, well, as the saying goes. Gen.
1. 1: When life gives you lemons

**A/N:** I am alive. (And unfortunately having trouble with my other stories.)

 **Disclaimer:** KHR belongs to Amano Akira

 **Warnings:** Liberties taken with making up background stories and changing them to suit my needs.

 **Summary:** For the Vongola, time travel is a part and parcel of life, though usually only five minutes at a time. So when the Guardians and their boss are bought twenty years back and find themselves _stuck_ , well, as the saying goes. Gen.

* * *

 **Gokudera Hayato**

It's a simple matter to sneak past the guards and to the garage, at least, for the current him. If he were actually three years old and trying to one up his father's men who have at least a decade under their belts in terms of experience then he wouldn't have made it past his room, but he's not, not since two weeks ago.

So he's now under the car, hidden from any patrols, young face twisted in a scowl at what he finds there. The wires that connect the breaks to the wheels are barely connected, a few more uses and the strain would have severed them entirely, leading to the incident that had changed his life in another future.

As small but deft hands go about fixing the break, his mind drifts and wonders who exactly needs a few lit dynamites stuck in questionable orifices; it isn't like they ever found the culprit last time.

Green eyes set in a chubby face glimmer ominously. He's never going to let his mother die of anything but old age, not this time.

* * *

 **Yamamoto Takeshi**

Anyone who knows Yamamoto Takeshi cites his amazing use of the sword and his ability to be so silent that you wouldn't know you were dead until you glimpsed the glimmer of a blade through your chest as you took your last breath. Closer acquaintances will speak of his never-ending smile and easy going nature. His friends will mention his passion for a certain sport, but no one aside from his family knows exactly why he loves baseball so much.

It starts with a woman whose passion has her seated at the stands in every major league, every year, like clockwork. It starts with a freelance assassin whose target is also a fan, for all his despicable activities of targeting innocent women. It starts with an unfortunate incident, with the crowds above cheering loudly enough to mask the sounds of a falling body and the gasp as blue eyes meet brown.

It starts with love.

Takeshi is three when his mother is diagnosed with a particularly malignant type of brain cancer. He is four when she passes away, leaving precious memories of being tucked against her side watching the TV even in the hospital, her grin wide as she cheers for her favourite team, regaling her young son of epic tales of her own attempts at the sport. (Takeshi learns to throw just like her; with a lot of force, and broken windows.)

Takeshi is not a doctor, nor a miracle worker, but some of his friends are, or will be, and even if they can't exactly cure cancer, he's certain that they can extend the time she has, so that he'll have more precious memories and hopefully, this time, they won't blur to become an unhealthy obsession in a decade's time.

He tightens the grip he has around his mother's fingers as his parent stiffen in shock from the doctor's diagnosis, and grins just a fraction wider than normal as hazel eyes glitter under closed eyelids.

* * *

 **Dokuro Chrome**

Chrome doesn't recall much of her time as Nagi, aside from the chill of neglect and a gaping loneliness that yawns the more she tries to remember. But her family are a distracting lot, so she doesn't try very often.

Now its staring her in the face, the extravagant mansion, with towering balustrades and heavy tapestries, the open spaces and a too-big room that has only the most basic, if extravagant furnishings (bed, desk, wardrobe) that you can't even tell it belongs to a three year old little girl. There's only one maid, who spends more time on the phone talking with her boyfriend than her task of seeing to Nagi.

Her… parents are not around, and even if they are she can't approach her mother without her pushing her aside and rushing off for another party, her multitudes of jewelry glittering against her pale skin. Her stepfather will grunt and never even look at her, hollering for the maid to take her away.

She sits alone at the end of a mile long table and can't help but think of this extravagance as dull and superfluous, her parents unwilling to give an ounce to a daughter, even when she's at deaths door in the future.

But she's seen what her boss can do with people like her parents, has even experienced it herself, as she went from shy and nervous to confident and so very comfortable with her place in the family. She likes to think his endless benevolence has at least rubbed a little off on her, as her brother in all but blood is probably the cause of the cunning brilliance she uses rarely if only because there was never a need to.

That night, she plans.

* * *

 **Rokudo Mukuro**

Mukuro refuses to sit around as the plaything of a bunch of scientists for another five years, even if Ken and Chikusa have little control of their respective abilities right now.

The six paths of hell were much more of a mental battle to obtain than a physical one, so he doesn't have to wait to obtain them all to wipe out this despicable famiglia.

He is five years old, malnurished and physically so weak.

He is twentyfive and one of the best illusionists in the world, possibly better than the current Esper Mammon.

A single red eye blazes and screams abound.

* * *

 **Bovino Lambo**

Unknown to Lambo, his mother was pregnant more than once.

It's the usual story of foolishness and youth, an agreement to carry on with the birth, and ending in tears as she suffers a miscarriage before the first trimester. This is the reason Lambo's birth five years down the line was met with so much love even though she ends up bedridden, weak and unable to hold on past her son's first birthday.

That is one timeline's events.

In this timeline, fate favours the couple, and Lambo's mother's first pregnancy sees her giving birth to a healthy baby just as an old soul enters it.

There's a moment of absolute wonder as the happy couple barely out of their teens hold their first child.

And then absolute chaos as the child opens his mouth and shows off an impressive set of lungs.

 _"Why the hell am I a baby?! I can't do anything as a baby!"_

* * *

 **Sasagawa Ryohei**

The rising sun is a blazing glory that sets grey eyes alight.

If asked, others would say that he's the most fortunate of Vongola's guardians; he still has his parents, and his sister, and an infinitely positive outlook on life.

What they don't understand is that means that he has the most to lose.

Of course, he never actually thinks that way, doesn't let himself, but the thought is there in a tiny corner of his mind and its the root of the reason why he vows to protect his loved ones to the extreme.

He's four, has a cute sister, and parents who love him even when they're busy with work.

He's twenty five, and has much more than his blood family to protect.

The loud shout that comes like clockwork in the mornings is a little delayed today, but it comes nevertheless, a little less exuberant but much more grounded in its conviction.

When Takeshi stands below his window, grin a little off, Ryohei knows what to do.

* * *

 **Hibari Kyoya**

Kyoya's family has always bred warriors. In any field involving combat there is, at some point, someone with the Hibari name has had a prominent position and the subsequent fear and respect that comes with it.

Kyoya's father is a police chief, his mother an assassin, and his uncle is involved with the triads. It's surprising that there aren't violent clashes among the family with all the opposing interests, but Hibaris are bred not only to be solitary but to have certain morals. The result is a number of individuals firmly grounded in their own beliefs; a difference between people who can wield their violence like a weapon and outright psychopaths. Business is never discussed inside the compound whenever anyone is there, except to the young and impressionable Kyoya.

Is it any wonder that a child whose bedtime stories were often realistic depictions of violent missions, trained to fight since the moment he could walk, became the demon prefect of Namimori?

Of course, he doesn't start the disciplinary committee until he's in the middle of primary school, after several violent encounters, and gaining a following of people who publicly declare their alligance somewhere in his fifth year.

This time he plans to speed up the process. And if the omnivore's charismatic nature has rubbed off on him, well, he's just as likely to thank him as he is to biting him.

Children and teachers alike shudder at the sadistic gleam in the tiny boy's face. Solid tonfa, sized for a child, appear in his hands.

"Order will be maintained, or I'll bite."

* * *

 **Sawada Tsunayoshi**

Twenty four year old Tsuna's life is not perfect, but he's got a so many family members that his heart is content, even if most of them give him premature grey hairs.

Three year old Tsuna's life is not perfect, but he's got a gentle loving mother and for a boy that young that's all he really needs.

At least until he finds out that he will have lots of family in the future, and that even now some of them are suffering.

Tsuna's only goal in life, when he got one (disregarding the one where he wanted to become a robot), has always been to protect.

He cannot sit idly by when his family are suffering.

So when Iemitsu comes to visit with Timoteo two weeks after Tsuna's time displacement, Tsuna is long gone, and Nana has moved in with the Yamamotos, humming cheerfully as she prepares sushi for the customers.

* * *

END (Maybe)

* * *

 **A/N** : Stress writing strikes again. No idea where this is going (okay, I have _ideas_ , but they're half formed and incomplete). _I have no idea where the hell this even came from._


	2. 2: Make waves

**A/N:** Concentration on required tasks = 0

 **Disclaimer:** KHR belongs to Amano Akira

 **Warnings:** Liberties taken with making up background stories and changing them to suit my needs.

 **Summary:** For the Vongola, time travel is a part and parcel of life, though usually only five minutes at a time. So when the Guardians and their boss are bought twenty years back and find themselves _stuck_ , well, as the saying goes. Gen.

 **Order:** There isn't one really, events in the last chapter took place in pretty much the same time. This chapter is from a one week to three months post time displacement in a somewhat chronological order. I may, if I continue this fic, go back or further into the future. It depends on my muse.

* * *

Why wait for events to play out when you have an opportunity to make things better?

So the future tenth generation of Vongola decide to change things.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, this _changes_ things.

* * *

 **Irie Shōichi**

Irie Shōichi would be lying if he said he isn't nervous. In fact his stomach is doing somersaults despite the antacids he's already taken.

He's meeting with one of his penpals in person which is _terrifying_ for a four year old boy -genius or not. Unfortunately, it's not the ever patient Yoshi, but the one he introduced to Shōichi; Wrench, who is sporadically enthusiastic and apathetic in turns.

What if he doesn't like him?

What if he finds Shōichi weird like all the other kids in his daycare do?

What if he hates hi-

Shōichi yelps as something hits his head and he's sent sprawling.

"Stop panicking, herbivore." The imposing boy glares.

"Cloud-san," chides the purple haired girl beside him as she helps Shōichi stand.

Shōichi holds his stomach with one hand and rubs his head with the other as he wonders why gentle and cheerful Yoshi's friends are absolutely, undeniably, _terrifying._

Oh, Hibari Kyoya made the poor red head faint when the boy appeared at his door as his escort because everyone who is anyone in Namimori knows of the terrifying forces of nature known as the Hibaris.

But Dokuro Chrome is another thing altogether. When Yoshi first put him in contact with the girl Shōichi thought she was incredibly nice. That impression went out the window when he realises she wanted him to hack into her parents accounts to force them into bankruptcy because apparently, and he quote, 'they need a lesson in humility, and you can't get that when you have so much money to spare.'

Which made some sense, he supposes, but who does that to their own parents while wearing a gentle smile on their face?

Dokuro Chrome apparently.

She passes the redhead boy one side of a large cardboard sign, depicting an image of a wrench, to hold -and where in the world did this thing come from? Air?!- as the airport crowd gives them a wide birth due to Hibari Kyoya's menacing aura.

Chrome is entirely unfazed as she passes out tiny homemade sandwiches to Hibari, Shōichi and the blond haired boy, which just proves Shōichi's point further.

The red head promptly chokes on his bread.

The blond haired boy has blue eyes that blink slowly. "Toshiyuki?" The english accent twists awkwardly around the Japanese syllables.

Shōichi nods frantically and quickly gulps down the water Chrome offers, blushing furiously -so much for first impressions- as he replies in english. "A-ah yes! Um, my real name is Irie Shōichi."

"Spanner."

Shōichi stares, numb. "That can't be your real name." The words slip out before he can stop them and he feels his cheeks burn.

The blond shrugs, apparently finding no offence. "I didn't name myself."

Apparently his brain is failing him because wrench and spanner are the same things and this boy _chose_ his pen name and Shōichi finds himself giggling even if it isn't _that_ funny.

Spanner chuckles in return, and Shōichi finds that his stomach has stopped doing acrobatics, but his cheeks continue to burn because Chrome is looking on almost indulgently and Hibari scoffs. Hibari grabs Spanner's luggage, turning away towards the taxi booth without another word, leaving the other children to scramble after him.

It's the start of a beautiful friendship.

And many _many_ inventions.

(The only reason Hibari would enter a crowded airport is because he _craves_ those upgrades that are buried inside those brilliant minds.)

* * *

 **Sawada Iemitsu**

Iemitsu does not understand what is going on in his wife's head when she apparently let their toddler son run off to who knows where _by_ _himself._

Furthermore, she's moved out of the very house they picked _together_ the night of their honeymoon to join another couple and their three year old son who, for some strange reason, not only own a sushi shop but a fully equipped dojo at the back.

Iemitsu doesn't like the way Nana's airy replies are punctuated with entirely too sharp stabs to the poor fish on the chopping board.

He doesn't like the way the other man, Yamamoto Tsuyoshi, only laughs and suggests a mince fish dish for the night, even as the line of his shoulders remain tense and he handles _his_ knife with a grace Iemitsu is intimately familiar with.

And he certainly doesn't like the way the son and his loud friend makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand on edge, because even though one's grins are entirely friendly, and the other is exuberant to the point of obnoxiousness, he feels like he's standing on a knife's edge with a punch an inch away from his face every time he talks to them in attempts to coax out his darling son's location. (Which doesn't make sense because they're not even _five years old_.)

Needless to say, the first meeting with his wife in two years is an absolute disaster.

And no, it isn't just because of the polite if somewhat threatening reception he and his boss are subjected to, no.

It's because god-fucking-Reborn calls somewhere in the middle of Iemitsu's sixth stare-off with the sushi chef's son.

"...what."

"Are you as deaf as you are dumb? I _said,_ your son is helping me raise Dino into an excellent mafia boss- _no don't interrupt me Tsuna I am_ not _being accused of kidnapping someone under Vongola's wing-_ now where was I? Oh yes, I'm glad he hasn't inherited any of your stupidity, Iemitsu. Good bye."

Takeshi laughs as the poor _poor_ man attempts to compute everything that was just said in the last minute. He promptly faints.

"Oh, that reaction is EXTREMELY like my little bro's."

* * *

 **Gokudera Lavina**

Lavina is a little perplexed about _how_ this situation came to be.

Of course, finding one of her love's men tampering with her car is an unpleasant surprise, if not entirely unexpected -Banchi is a darling even with her culinary escapades but the same cannot be said of her mother who seethes at Lavina's very presence despite her own political and therefore not entirely fulfilling marriage to the man Lavina fell in love with.

It's a bit of a blur _how_ it happens but one moment, Lavina's reaching for the pepper spray she keeps tucked into her sleeves and the next Hayato's there and shoving -where in the world did a three year old child get his hands on live dynamite?! Lavina's going to have _words_ with his father, love or not- into the perspiring man's mouth and tying his hands and feet with all the deftness of someone who has done this numerous times which is _ridiculous._

Regardless, she doesn't understand _why_ exactly she agrees to drive out of the compound with Hayato beside her and the captured man in the boot but here she is, watching as a teenager, who has introduced himself as Lancia, pulls the man out of the car while her dear Hayato converses with another boy perhaps a year or two older with one red eye gleaming sinisterly -Mukuro, apparently.

"...if this man isn't the orchestrator, then you'll have to wait until the main perpetrator is either dead or has had a nice chat with Tsunayoshi."

"He can't act as a therapist for every f-flailing idiot out there!" Hayato casts a wary glance Lavina's way and she beams at his efforts to curb his language that for some odd reason appeared a month back. Oddly, her darling son and his friend looks somewhat disturbed and his companion mutters something that suspiciously sounds like, 'Kyoko flashbacks'.

"Yes, well for now, you'll have to keep your mother-" a small hand slaps over Mukuro's mouth as Hayato hisses at him, face red and frantic as a startled cat.

Oh.

Lavina has suspected, ever since Hayato's smiles have started holding an undercurrent of such melancholy wistfulness these last few weeks that it takes her entire will to walk out after every lesson.

And the expression that Hayato now wears; of guilt, and pain, and _fear or being rejected_ , just breaks her heart.

As she gathers her adorable _genius_ of a son into her arms, she vows never to let go ever again.

And if she decides to snag his friend too -because no child should ever wear an expression of such pain and _want_ hidden behind a nonchalant mask- well, she has more than enough love to give.

* * *

 **Bovino Rina**

Lambo's parents are more than a little befuddled when their son behaves like an absolute angel in their guest's arms.

Apparently, it shows, because the little brunet boy, in his neatly pressed shirt, suspenders and shorts, blinks large honey eyes up at them from where he's sitting on the floor cooing at the baby in his arms. "Is something the matter?"

Lambo is temperamental at best, and a downright menace at worst, as Bovino's second in command can attest to -he still has a purple eye and a bruised kidney from where the brat had thrown wood blocks at him, and his favorite shirt is soiled. (Lambo is secretly pleased that the man that had sent him on the suicide mission against Reborn _last_ time now shudders at the sight of him.)

Even his father is not spared the scowls -and did his baby son _roll his eyes_ at him when he tried to play peek-a-boo?

The only exception is Lambo's mother and a few of the servants who gets all the delighted giggles and adorable smiles from the baby boy.

That's why this baby shower slash mafia gathering was met with much trepidation, and the Bovino don't allow any of the guests too close to the three month old babe.

Except a little boy slips through their guard and Lambo is laughing and reaching and-

Well.

"Who are you?" Rina Bovino asks, emerald eyes keen as they watch the way her baby son pats the boy's chubby cheeks and they way he turns back to her son, expression remarkably soft and tender and filled with love.

Rina wonders about adoption since no one seems to be claiming this boy as their own and Lambo evidently _adores_ him.

Soft lips open to reply, but a blond teenager somehow manages to trip into the space that surrounds the two boys. He stumbles and barely manages to right himself before his face meets the marble flooring. Rina distantly notes that it's the Cavallone heir as he turns frantic eyes on the boy. "Tsuna! What are you doing?!"

"Hi Dino," the little brunet, Tsuna, smiles and Rina swears she sees _sparkles_ in the air around him, given the way some of the other guests are rubbing their eyes, she's not the only one. "I'm making friends!"

"If _that's_ your standard for friends, then I feel offended."

As one, the guests shuffle uneasily and Rina's freezes because that's Reborn, an Arcobaleno, a _hitman,_ standing in front of her babe and the ridiculously adorable brunet whose smile widens -is that even possible?!- and its not only sparkles now but _flowers_ too as he giggles, "only because _your_ standards are ridiculously high. Even Lambo agrees with me, right Lambo?" The baby waves a fist in Reborn's direction. Rina's heart stops because this moment, her son and this tiny boy that's barely out of his toddler phase, teasing the World's Greatest Hitman, is absolutely surreal.

It's apparently normal too, because Dino Cavallone hasn't frozen up in shock at all, and breaks them up quite literally, leading to the tiny hitman chasing him out while Tsuna puts Lambo back into his crib with a few whispered words, a kiss to his forehead, and a new toy.

Rina rushes forward after he leaves with a polite bow and another of those blinding smiles, to follow the Cavallone heir and the hitman.

She thinks nothing of the new toy: a green box the same size as his blocks and completely misses the silver ring Lambo tucks under his covers, only sighing in relief to find him completely unharmed.

Lambo smiles up at his mother as he thinks back to his Tsuna-nii's words.

 _"You have your own family now, but you're_ always _welcome to join us my dear little brother."_

* * *

 _END (?)_

* * *

 **A/N:** More random inspiration for this. As with all WIP fics, I start writing and _stuff happens_ which may or may not come and bite me later. Fun.

Reviews and feedback are loved, and if you wish to give me more inspiration, feel free. Just keep in mind that I do not enjoy writing overused tropes and sometimes ideas run away from me (this is my second time travel actually... hm...).

As always, thank you for reading,

SD


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